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We run 275 taps and normally are in full swing. Last year and this have been really strange weather wise (warm through the beginning of January. Last year the season came late and the weather turned warm suddenly. Have not tapped tree one as of today.

I tapped my trees on monday,only 17 taps but got seven 8 oz bottles of syrup on wednesday,sap is not flowing good yet in kentucky.
I would sure appreciate any hints on filtering the syrup,now we are using 4 layers of cotton insulated underware,the top part which i never use so it is clean and the syrup comes out good but slow to go through,what can an old country boy use ???

Any of you sell to individuals by mail? I live in south Texas and we haven't learned how to tap our cedar trees, yet. Seriously, Dick, I truly love Birch syrup and to all others, maple syrup makes my toes curl. Let me know on a PM and hopefully we can work a deal.

My neighbor ships maple syrup. I posted about this last year about this time.. I'll see if I can find the thread. He hasn't tapped out yet, in fact I haven't seen any taps out around here yet- I think folks are missing the early boat! Traditionally, maple syrup season around here has been mid-March but in recent years it's started much earlier, sometimes in mid-February and it's all over by the end of March. Lack of snow cover and frozen ground shuts down clean sap production in a hurry. The first flows are the sweetest ones and with the weather we've been having this week and are expecting this weekend, the sap IS flowing.

I used to be in the syrup business back in the early 70's, I had a 4x8 Leader evaporator and tapped out about 1200 trees. Turned out to be too labor intensive for me to want to keep going so I sold out.

Eh.. been searching in another window. Can't find the thread. I'll check with my neighbor this weekend- last I knew his syrup went for something like $12 a quart but I might be wrong.

You folks down there below the Mason-Dixon line can't find maple syrup in the supermarkets? It's sold here in Anchorage in the grocery stores and at Costco. It's sure cheaper for me to get it that way than it is to fly all the way to upstate New York and make my own, but I do it anyway. Another crazy thing I do is (try to) keep bees.

(btw, anybody going to be at the SABA seminar in Albany at the end of March?)

Tapping is well underway here in Vermont. Many producers...especially those with warm, south facing sugarbushes...are afraid of early warm weather again. Those I know sugaring say the snow in the woods is killing them this year. Deep and soft. No bottom. Snow shoes sink in, and tapping is going half speed.

You had a Leader, George? With $ signs on the doors? I worked for Leader, for a number of years. Started out soldering the side seams on syrup cans. Thousands a day. Became foreman of the can plant. Worked in the sugar untensil side of the business, too. Used to make one cone syrup filter tanks, from stainless. Cute little rigs. Made three a day. I used to sugar, too. Had 5000 taps, at one time. Sold the syrup in pints and quarts to healthfood stores downcountry. Watching all those little bubbles...that's what got me into bees. Just think...the bees do all the gathering, and all the boiling.

We let a neighbore (runs 1200 taps) tap our bush this year (275). Big dissappointment so far. Of course anyone who does sugaring will tell you it's less about the $$ and more about the woods and the sugar shack.

We let a neighbore (runs 1200 taps) tap our bush this year (275). Big dissappointment so far. Of course anyone who does sugaring will tell you it's less about the $$ and more about the woods and the sugar shack.

I think you are right! You are also right about it not being about the money....nothing is more enjoyable that tromping through waist high snow up hill while draging a 1000 miles of line and 5000 taps behind you. Yeah...we ran a rather large operation at one time (in Vermont) and I still have the scars to remind me.